Methods and systems for converting a related group of physical machines to virtual machines

ABSTRACT

A computer implemented method for processing virtualization of physical computers that are part of a group into virtual computers is provided. The method includes obtaining relationship data from the physical computers, where the relationship data identifies parameters used to communicate within the group. Then, the method analyzes utilization parameters for each of the physical computers of the group. A visual model for proposed virtualization of the group of physical computers is then generated. The visual model identifies hosting machines designated to define a virtual computer for each of the physical computers, where the visual model provides a graphical illustration of the group of physical computers once converted to virtual computers. The method enables adjustment of the proposed virtualization of the group of physical computers. Then, an execution sequence of virtualization operations to be carried out is generated, if execution of the proposed virtualization is triggered, and the execution sequence is saved to storage and accessed upon execution.

BACKGROUND

The computing industry has seen many advances in recent years, and suchadvances have produced a multitude of products and services. Computingsystems have also seen many changes, including their virtualization.Virtualization of computer resources generally connotes the abstractionof computer hardware, which essentially separates operating systems andapplications from direct correlation to specific hardware. Hardware istherefore abstracted to enable multiple operating systems andapplications to access parts of the hardware, defining a seamlessvirtual machine. The result of virtualization is that hardware is moreefficiently utilized and leveraged.

The advent of virtualization has sparked a number of technologies, whichallow companies to optimize the utilization of their systems. As acompany's enterprise systems are usually installed at various geographiclocations, networking protocols are used to interconnect the varioussystems, which can then be virtualized into one or more virtual servers.

With the recent proliferation of virtual systems and servers, properdeployment practices have become increasingly important. Althoughvitalizing individual systems has become increasingly simplified withthe use of special software programs and tools, this simplification hasintroduced laborious complexities set-up and configuration of groupedcomputer systems, enterprise systems, and the like. These complexitiesarise primarily based on the need to keep system interrelationshipsintact after virtualization of tens, hundreds or thousands of computers.As managed group systems depend on the processes and/or data produced orgenerated by other systems of the group, conventional virtualizationschemes that virtualize one computer system at a time tends to be timeconsuming, and prone to errors. Although it is envisioned that care canbe taken to account for the interrelationships between the managedsystems of a group, these relationships sometimes are dependent onmultiple conditions. Unfortunately, the conventional manner ofvirtualization currently requires virtualization of one computer at atime.

In view of the foregoing, there is a need for methods, systems andcomputer implemented processes that enable automated virtualizationprocesses for groups of computers, while ensuring that existinginterrelationships are maintained or updated.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, a computer implemented method for processingvirtualization of physical computers that are part of a group intovirtual computers is provided. The method includes obtainingrelationship data from the physical computers, where the relationshipdata identifies parameters used to communicate within the group. Then,the method analyzes utilization parameters for each of the physicalcomputers of the group. A visual model for proposed virtualization ofthe group of physical computers is then generated. The visual modelidentifies hosting machines designated to define a virtual computer foreach of the physical computers, where the visual model provides agraphical illustration of the group of physical computers once convertedto virtual computers. The method enables adjustment of the proposedvirtualization of the group of physical computers. Then, an executionsequence of virtualization operations to be carried out is generated, ifexecution of the proposed virtualization plan is triggered, and theexecution sequence is saved to storage and accessed upon execution.

In another embodiment, a computer implemented method for visualizing amodel of a virtualized data center is provided. The data center has agroup of physical computers designated for virtualization. The methodincludes obtaining relationship data from the physical computers, wherethe relationship data defines parameters used to enable communicationamong the group of physical computers of the data center. The methodthen builds a visual model for display on a screen, where the visualmodel is for a proposed virtualization of the group of physicalcomputers of the data center. The visual model identifies hostingmachines designated to host a virtual computer for a particular one ofthe physical computers. The visual model is graphically interactive toenable modification of the proposed virtualization. The method furthergenerates an execution sequence of virtualization operations to becarried out if execution of the proposed virtualization is triggered,where the execution sequence is saved to memory and accessed uponexecution.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention may best be understood by reference to the followingdescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates the physical machines of a multi-tiered application,in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an interactive visual model that iscreated from the physical machines and their relationships, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a sequence of virtualization steps that are proposed,for the virtualization routine to transform the visual model into anactual virtualized system, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a graphical user interface, providing systemadministrators with interactive access to the visual model and editableaccess to the execution sequence, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart diagram of one embodiment, which allowsfor the automation of group virtualization, while preserving therelationships that existed in the physical machines, aftervirtualization is completed, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a diagram of a physical configuration of computersystems for a multi-tiered application 100. The multi-tiered application100 uses a plurality of machines to enable execution of the tasksrequired for a given service(s). The services may be for an enterprise,which may have many applications and systems. The systems may includeemail systems, human resources systems, accounting systems, engineeringsystems, sales, etc. Thus, multi-tiered application 100 can representeither simple or very complete systems.

In this example, each of the computer systems are part of a physicalcomputer system environment, where actual computers or servers areprocessing instructions and acting in cooperation with other computersthat have been assigned other tasks. For example, arrows illustrate aplurality of communication interfaces that define relationships 102a-102 h. Each of the relationships 102 can include a number ofparameters that define the communication information required tointeractively communicate, share data, update application states, etc.In one embodiment, each computer could have a specific IP addressassigned to that particular computer in the multi-tiered applicationenvironment. The IP address can either be static or dynamically assignedusing Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

Other communication information can include software credentials neededto access the various computers or communication between the variouscomputers that require either passwords, codes, or keys. For instance,some computers may implement firewalls, log-on procedures, and othersecurity configurations designed to safeguard the information beingprocessed by the multi-tiered application 100. Any one or more of thisinformation can be broadly construed as relationships 102, which arepart of a computer or shared between the various physical hardwaremachines that make up the multi-tiered application 100.

These relationships in turn, are defined by specific parameters thatmust be programmed into each of the computers, or devices communicatingwith particular computers and databases. For completeness, thatmulti-tiered application 100 and its various physical computers will nowbe described, to illustrate the physical relationships as well as thelogical relationships between the computers that define the multi-tieredapplication 100. In this example, a load balancer is provided thatcommunicates with front end application server (FA1), as well as thefront end application server (FA2). As illustrated, the front endapplication servers FA1 and FA2 each communicate with a database server(FD). The front end application server FA1 in turn, communicates withthe back end application server (BA2).

In a similar manner, the front end application server FA2 communicateswith the back end application server (BA1). Back end application serverBA1, as well as back end application server BA2, communicate withdatabase server (DB), by way of relationships 102 g and 102 h. In thismulti-tiered application 100, the load balancer is designed tocommunicate with redundant front end and back end servers, so as toenhance the operation and capacity of the system, as well as to providefail-over.

The multi-tiered application 100 of FIG. 1 was provided to illustratethat the relationships for communication between the various physicalcomputer systems, databases, and network equipment (not shown), requirespecial programming and configuration at the time the systems were setup. Once the configurations of the relationships and associatedparameters are set, the system is tested and operated in accordance withits settings. Additionally, the configuration illustrated in FIG. 1 isonly provided to illustrate that the various physical computer systemswill require specific configurations and relationships in order to existand operate in its desired mission implementation.

Virtualization of physical hardware is a desired conversion for amultitude of reasons. Virtualization of hardware enables for simplifieddeployment of new virtual systems, as well as simplicity in managementand utilization of hardware resources. As a result, multi-tieredapplications 100 and their associated hardware are commonly beingvirtualized using virtualization tools. These virtualization tools willact upon a single piece of hardware at a time in order to convert andcreate a virtual machine from a defined physical machine. As mentionedabove, virtualization of machines has become simpler as tools areprovided to enable users to examine and convert the physical systemsinto virtual systems. The noted drawback is that physical systems aregenerally converted to virtual systems one at a time. Consequently, therelationships between other physical computers in a system are ignoredor are not considered important when virtualization of a particularphysical computer is performed. The result is that each of the physicalcomputers are virtualized to create virtual machines that are assignedto host computer machines. The host computer machines act as a servermachine, and the server machine can host one or more virtual machinethat result from specific virtualizations of specific physicalcomputers.

The resulting (one-by-one) virtualization will therefore lose therelationships 102 created when the multi-tiered application 100 wascreated. Thus, substantial time and effort is required to thenreconfigure each of the virtual machines that are created from thevarious physical machines that were individually virtualized. Althoughthe illustration of FIG. 1 provides a sampling of the variousrelationships that must be considered, some multi-tiered applications100 actually consist of hundreds upon hundreds of physical computersthat were converted to virtual machines. Re-establishing all therelationships within the multi-tiered application 100 would then becomevery cumbersome, time-consuming, and error prone. With the drawback inmind, embodiments of the present invention define methods for generatingvisual models that take proposed virtualization of physical machines andthen generate a visual model of a resulting virtualized system. Thevirtualized system will also retain the relationships that wereidentified as well as an analysis of the virtualization infrastructurefor utilization when a resulting virtual model and virtualization isperformed.

In one embodiment, the process will include information gathering thatentails a process for obtaining relationships, configuration parameters,credential information, and interdependencies from the physical systemsthat are to be virtualized. At this point, the gathering of informationcan be done in an automated manner by querying the physical systems forinformation regarding their relationships, credentials, and otherinformation.

In one embodiment, automated requests can be made to the physicalsystems if the physical systems have the software capable of returninginformation regarding their relationships, parameters and credentials.In one embodiment, an automated technique we use a common informationmodel (CIM) request that is processed by the physical systems and thengathered in an automated manner. Broadly, a CIM architectures includesclients and servers.

A server can respond to CIM requests from a client. This request can beused to obtain all of the information about the physical system, itsrelationships with other systems of a group and all associatedparameters. Thus, CIM clients communicate with managed systems (e.g.,CIM servers), which operate with a common information model objectmanager (CIMOM). A CIMOM includes a repository for storing schemas thatare defined by one more classes. The CIM Schema supplies a set ofclasses with properties and associations that provide a framework withinwhich it is possible to organize the available information about themanaged environment. The CIM Schema is therefore a combination of theCore and Common Models. CIM management information has a specific formatto enable the exchange information. The CIM Specification defines alanguage based on the Interface Definition Language (IDL) called ManagedObject Format (MOF). The MOF syntax is a way to describe objectdefinitions in textual form, and it establishes the syntax for writingdefinitions.

The CIM is a hierarchical, object oriented architecture that makes iteasy to track and depict the often complex interdependencies andassociations among different managed objects. Such interdependencies mayinclude those between logical network connections and underlyingphysical devices, or those of an e-commerce transaction and the web anddatabase servers on which it depends. The CIM is therefore aninformation model of a conceptual view of the managed environment, thatattempts to unify and extend the existing instrumentation and managementstandards (SNMP, DMI, CMIP, etc.) using object-oriented constructs anddesign. The CIMOM is responsible for responding to client requests overthe network, and either responding to them directly (typically for classlevel operations) or forwarding the request to one or more Providers.

Information gathering can also include a query sent to a systemadministrator to identify information that was not possible to obtain inan automated request, or information that the system administrator wouldlike to preserve, change or modify during the information gatheringoperation. It is envisioned that the system administrator can beprovided with a graphical user interface that identifies each of thevarious physical computers and the various parameters. The variousparameters of the various computers are then provided to the systemadministrator in a GUI, table, graph, folder, file system, or otherrepresentation to enable the system administrator to easily andaccurately confirm, modify, or adjust the various pieces of informationgathered at the initial stage.

Once the information has been gathered, an analysis operation isperformed on the gathered information. The analysis will includeidentification of utilization requirements for each of the physicalcomputers that will be virtualized and then assigned to a host machine.In one embodiment, the host machine can be an ESX host machine, which isavailable from VMware, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif. As each host machineis only capable of servicing a particular number of virtual machinesthat result from the physical machines, it is important to identify theutilization requirements of each of the physical machines before theyare assigned to the various host machines (ESX servers).

In one embodiment, the utilization can be performed using a capacityplanner program that identifies the capacity required for the variousapplications running on the resulting virtual machines. In still anotherembodiment, the utilization can be obtained from historical data of useor operations performed by the programs running on the physicalmachines. The historical data can then be used to plan and assess whichvirtual machines will be assigned to particular ESX servers.

Now that the information gathering and the analysis operations areperformed, a modeling operation will be performed automatically by theprocess in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Inone embodiment, a visual model is provided and presented to a systemadministrator or user in response to completing the information andanalysis steps. In the model, a proposed virtualization configuration ispresented which will fit the capabilities of the physical servers. Forexample, if the physical server has two network interface cards (NICs),the corresponding virtual machine (VM) will have two virtual NICs.Accordingly, each of the virtualized machines will be constructed so asto mirror the capabilities of the physical machines that werevirtualized in order for the model to maintain the relationships thatexisted between the physical machines.

FIG. 2 illustrates the multi-tiered application in its visual model 110,before the virtualization occurs. The visual model 110 illustratesrepresentations of the hosting machines (ESX1, ESX2, and ESX3). Thesehosting machines are shown with associated virtual machines (i.e., smallserver box icons) that will be hosted by the hosting machines, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The visualmodel 110 also illustrates the relationships 104 a, 104 b, and 104 c.The relationships are those that were presented and contained within thephysical systems shown in FIG. 1.

The virtual model 110 also enables the user to select different virtualmachines that are assigned to the hosting machines and drag and dropthem to the various hosting machines, make new hosting machines, etc.,depending on the desired resulting virtualization. Although the proposedvirtualization has been constructed based on the gathered informationand the utilization analysis, the user or system administrator may knowthat a different configuration or assignment of a virtual machine to agiven hosting machine is preferred over a proposed configuration. As aresult, the ability to drag, drop, move and re-set the visual model 110provides additional flexibility to the user to achieve the desiredvirtualization while maintaining the set relationships.

In the illustrated visual model 110, ESX1 is shown hosting FA1 and BA1.ESX2 is shown hosting FA2 and BA2. ESX3 is shown hosting LB, FD, and BD.The moving of LB 108 is shown using a drag and drop operation thatallows LB to be moved from ESX3 to ESX1. If LB is moved to ESX1, thevisual model 110 will also be adjusted so that the relationships aremaintained, updated, and the utilization parameters are re-adjusted. Ifutilization parameters indicate that the drag and drop operation exceedsa threshold load for a given ESX, a warning would be given through thevisual model user interface.

For example, FA1 & FA2 may have been grouped on same ESX server but thesystem admin may wants them on separate servers to plan for any possibleESX Server/Hardware failure. Also, proposed VM capabilities can beadjusted in the model, e.g., number of vNICs, number of CPUs, CPUcapacity, memory, etc.

Additional suggestions or recommendations may also be provided to theuser in response to an inappropriate or non-recommended drag and drop ofthe particular virtual machine from one hosting machine to another, orother change. Still further, the visual model can also allow user to addadditional hosting machines if the load requirements are anticipated toincrease or change, as known by the system administrator or user that isviewing the virtual model, before the virtualization occurs.

FIG. 3 illustrates a process that defines the execution sequence of thevirtualization operations to be carried out by the system in response tothe visual model 110. Process flow 150 of FIG. 3 illustrates that basedon the information gathered and analysis, and any modeling adjustmentsor modifications made, the virtualization scheme is defined by generatedproposed scripts. The scripts define a sequence of operations to beperformed, and a sequence of operations to be executed to virtualizeeach one of the physical machines into virtual machines. As is wellknown, there will be cases where one for a physical machine must beconverted into a virtual machine before the other. In one embodiment, inorder to maintain the relationships intact, the sequence of proposedvirtualization steps should be followed in order to avoid a break in therelationships or cause potential inoperability.

Based on the defined plan, operation 152 shows a proposal for script 1that will, among other things, collect configuration information,prepare the computers for virtualization (e.g., shutdown certaincritical applications, take the computers out of the load balancer,etc.) and trigger virtualization of BA1 followed by the virtualizationof FA1. Referring to FIG. 1, it is shown that FA1 is the front endapplication server FA1, and the BA1 is the back end application serverBA1. Load balancer is also shown in FIG. 1, which provides workoptimization across the load balanced systems. In order to proceed withthe virtualization of script one of FIG. 3, the BA1 and FA1 should beremoved from the load balancer to allow operational use through FA2 andBA2 during the virtualization of FA1 and FA2 in operation 152. In thisembodiment, any process critical operations and programs can continue tooperate through the front end application FA2 and the back endapplication BA2, during the virtualization of FA1 and BA1.

The method would then move to operation 154 where a proposed script 2would enable the virtualization of BA2 and then FA2, followed by thevirtualization of BD, FD, and LB. During the virtualization of thedatabases, it may not be possible to continue un-interrupted operationsof the multi-tiered application 100 if the databases are required orcritical to the servicing of those process applications or services. Ifthe databases are not required during the virtualization of FA2 and BA2in operation 154, then it is possible to continue with un-interruptedoperation of the multi-tiered application 100.

The defined plan 150, however, is only a proposed virtualizationsequence. The proposed virtualization sequence is also displayed to theuser through a graphical user interface to illustrate the operationsthat will be performed during the virtualization. It is possible thatthe user or system administrator will know of or require an additionalstep, script, or modification to the defined plan. If such modificationis desired, the operations move from 158 to 160 where changes in thescripts are made to modify the plan. Although scripts are specificallyidentified, it is possible to have other process operations that are notscripts (e.g., algorithms, flows, methods, etc.), which can be modifiedin accordance with the user's requirements. Once the plan has beendefined, the user can save the plan in operation 162. The plan ispreferably save to memory, and can be recalled when the virtualizationoperations take place.

FIG. 4 illustrates a graphical user interface 200 showing an example ofthe visual model 110, as well as the visually detected configurationsfor the various properties of the physical machines that were convertedinto virtual machines. The multi-tiered application virtual model willtherefore illustrate the various hosting machines (ESX servers, othervirtualization supplier servers, etc.) that will be supporting thevirtual machines that represent the virtualized physical computers.

In one embodiment, the user can use a mouse clicker or pointer 204 toclick on the virtual machines in the virtual model itself. When the userclicks on FA1 using pointer 204, section 206 of the graphical userinterface 200 will illustrate the properties of the selected virtualmachine FA1. If other VMs are clicked, section 206 will changeaccordingly. In this example, FA1 is the front end application server,which has a plurality of properties. For ease of illustration, only afew sample properties are shown, but pointer 204 may be used to move aslider in the graphical user interface window that shows the additionalproperties of the particular virtual machine. Thus, the host in thisexample is ESX1, representing the hosting machine for FA1. The host namewill be a virtual FA1 (vFA1). The network address will be assigned byDHCP. The original settings are also provided under the notation “old.”

As mentioned above, the properties 206 of FA1 are only presented forexample, and other information will also be provided, such as hardwareconfiguration information of the original physical machine, and theresulting configuration for the new machine. Certain physicalconfigurations may include the media access controller (MAC), thatdefine the machine number assigned to the physical machine. The MACnumber is also referred to as the MAC address, and each computer systemis universally assigned a particular number that is unique. As a result,the new MAC address for the virtual machine cannot be identical to theoriginal machine. However, the new MAC address that is assigned can becorrelated to properly be referenced by other virtual machines that maybe referencing that virtual machine (if the MAC address was used foridentification or a relationship).

If the host name is changed for one of the virtual machines, the virtualmachines that were referencing that new virtual machine will also beupdated so that each of the machines can properly continue to use theiroriginal relationships, or the relationships that were defined by thevisual model, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. Still shown in section 206 of the graphical user interface200 is the ability of a user, such as a system administrator to assignnew MAC addresses to specific virtual machines, based on therelationships that should be maintained between virtual machines, thatare part of the visual model. In one embodiment, a new MAC address isautomatically obtained from the virtual Network Interface Card (vNIC) ofthe virtual machine.

Once the relationships, parameters, and properties of the specificvirtual machines have been identified and their old and newconfigurations are saved by selecting button 208, the information issaved to memory, storage, or a file. This information, once saved, canbe used in conjunction with the visual model 110 to define the proposedexecution sequence.

Section 210 of the graphical user interface shows an example interfaceprovided to the user. As discussed above, there are two scripts thatwould be run in operations 152 and 154 of FIG. 3. In this example, it isshown that script 1 would be run first, and then the virtualization ofBA1 and FA1 servers would occur. The next step would be to run script 2followed by the virtualization of BA1 and FA2 servers. Then BD, FD, andLB servers would be virtualized. At this point, it is possible that theuser may wish to switch the suggested proposed execution sequence. Ifthe sequence is desired to be changed, the user can simply addadditional scripts, move scripts up or down, modify scripts, or removescripts altogether. For simplicity, only scripts 1 and 2 are shown, butit is envisioned that a multitude of scripts may be provided to enablethe organized and efficient virtualization of many machines, clusters ofmachines, or even hundreds upon hundreds of machines, based on thecreated visual model. Once the user or system administrator is satisfiedwith the execution sequence, the user can simply proceed to select theexecute button 112, in the graphical user interface, that will thencommence the execution of the virtualization of the multi-tieredapplication example.

Once the model is finalized, virtualization will not need any manualintervention assuming that either ESX servers can be deployedautomatically or physical hosts are shipped with ESXi.

Apart from various benefits of virtualization, one embodiment is to makevirtualization transparent to the application users i.e., all theconfiguration and group semantics should be unchanged. In otherembodiments, the user or system admin can change one or moreconfiguration and/or group semantics, or can override recommendations.For one example, a process may be as follows:

-   -   1. VMware Converter is used to convert server BA1. No need to        change hostname or network configuration. ESX server (ESX1) is        deployed and virtual machine BA1 is powered on ESX1.    -   2. FA1 is converted to VM and powered on ESX1.    -   3. ESX2 is deployed. FA2 & BA2 are converted to VMs and powered        on ESX2.    -   4. ESX3 is deployed. BD, FD, and LB are converted to VMs and        powered on ESX3.

If no configurations changes are made, all servers will retain IPaddresses (or DHCP configuration) and hostnames—hence, makingvirtualization transparent to the users. Then, users can still connectto same IP address or hostname, to consume services offered by theapplication.

In still another embodiment, partial virtualization can be performed. Incase the system admin may not be comfortable with virtualizing all theservers, and can select a subset of servers during the modeling step. Asshown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 4, the user may wish to virtualize less than allof the physical machines. Such option can be provided by way of agraphical control, a pull down menu, or dragging VMs off of ESXs orremoving ESXs all together. It may also be possible to modify thevirtualization sequence, thus removing scripts from the plan. Thecreated VMs will then continue to operate with the remaining physicalmachines, as the relationships are kept in tact.

Still further, system down time can be managed. For instance, in somecases, where physical systems are deployed with redundancy &load-balancing, application downtime can be made zero or close to zero,by using proper sequence and scripts as mentioned above.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart diagram 300 of method operationsperformed, in one embodiment of the present invention. In thisembodiment, operational steps are performed in order to examine physicalmachines that are part of a group of machines. In one embodiment, themachines can be part of a data center. The computers are examined toidentify and gather information associated with their relationshipsrelative to other computers in the group. This identification step 302is performed so that the appropriate number of computers that will bevirtualized are identified.

In operation 304, the identified computers from the group or data centerare examined to obtain the defined relationships between the computers,databases, and other computing and storage infrastructure in order toobtain and define the relationships, as well as access credentials tothe various computers of the group. Once these relationships andparameters, as well as any access credentials are obtained in operation304, the method moves to operation 306 where utilization or anticipatedutilization of the group of computers and the processes performed onthose computers is analyzed. If certain computers or processes arecharged with high throughput or high bandwidth operations, higherutilization will be required, and ultimate virtualization to hostmachines needs to be based on the workload assigned hosting machine(e.g., ESX).

In operation 308, a visual model for the proposed virtualization of thegroup of computers is generated automatically. This visual model willgenerate a listing of recommended hosting machines and the virtualmachines that are to be installed on the hosting machines to satisfy thevirtualization of the physical machines that are part of the group ofmachines or data center.

In operation 310, a sequence of virtualization operations are presentedto the user to achieve the execution of the proposed virtualization ofthe group of machines. The sequence of virtualization operationsrepresent the steps performed and the order in which the steps are goingto be performed in order to meet the virtualization, while stillpreserving the relationships between the various computers that are partof the virtualization group.

In one embodiment, both the sequence of virtualization operations aswell as the visual model, may be presented to the user in a graphicaluser interface, a tabular form, or a listing that allows the user tointerface with the information and make modifications if desired.Although the visual model and the sequence of virtualization operationare defined, based on the original physical machines, relationships, andutilization factors, the system administrator or user may proposealternatives, based on plan changes to the system, or known desires fora different configuration.

Thus, operation 312 provides editable adjustability to the visual modeland the sequence of virtualized operations to allow modifications, ifdesired. Once the modifications have been made, if any, the sequence ofvirtualization operations are executed in operation 314. If anynon-software relationship data of hardware is not updated during thevirtualization operation, the method can proceed to operation 316 wherethe hardware configuration data can be modified to make adjustments tothe resulting virtualized systems. In one or more embodiments, an audittrail is maintained for the sequence of virtualization operations for afuture reporting and/or troubleshooting purpose.

In one embodiment, it is desired to keep a record of the virtualizationoperations that were performed, as well as the virtual visual model ofthe virtualized system. If any troubleshooting is desired to beperformed on the resulting virtualized system, it is possible to quicklyrefer back to the visual model 110 and identify each of the virtualmachines and the hosting machines, as well as identify theirrelationships.

As shown in FIG. 2, the relationships of each of the virtual machinesthat were virtualized can then be double-checked back to the visualmodel 110. By accessing the visual model that is save for futurereference, the system administrator can go back to each of the virtualmodel virtual machines, click on the specific virtual machine andidentify their relationships 109 to the various other machines that werevirtualized as part of the virtualization. Accordingly, it is possibleto save a log of the virtualization process, as well as thevirtualization model for future reference and troubleshooting in casethere is a conflict, error, or adjustment required during the operationof the virtual implementation of the model.

Although virtualization operations can take on many forms, severalconcepts are important to ensure that physical constructs of physicalmachines are properly transferred to virtual machines. With this inmind, and by way of reference, more information on virtual system andmethods can be found in U.S. patents owned by the assignee of thepresent application, VMware, Inc. Thus, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,397,242,6,496,847, 7,069,413, 7,356,679, and US Published Application2008/0244028 A1, are each incorporated by reference for all purposes.

For completeness, reference is made to an example server system, that isreferred to by the trademark “ESX™”, which is provided by VMware, ofPalo Alto, Calif. However, the methods, systems and embodiments are notlimited to any one brand of server or virtualization servers. Theexample ESX(x) server is a hypervisor that partitions physical serversin multiple virtual machines. Each virtual machine may represent acomplete system, with processors, memory, networking, storage and BIOS.VMware ESX enables multiple virtual machines to: (a) share physicalresources, (b) run unmodified operating systems and applications, and(c) run the most resource-intensive applications side by side on thesame server. Other servers made by other suppliers can have similarfunctionality or more or less functionality, depending on their targetproduct. Accordingly, the systems, methods and computer readable mediacan be practiced using any product, software, or hardware configuration.

It will be obvious, however, to one skilled in the art, that the presentinvention may be practiced without some or all of these specificdetails. In other instances, well known process operations have not beendescribed in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the presentinvention.

Embodiments of the present invention may be practiced with variouscomputer system configurations including hand-held devices,microprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumerelectronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers and the like. Theinvention can also be practiced in distributed computing environmentswhere tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linkedthrough a wire-based or wireless network.

With the above embodiments in mind, it should be understood that one ormore embodiments of the invention may employ variouscomputer-implemented operations involving data stored in computersystems. These operations are those requiring physical manipulation ofphysical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantitiestake the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. Further, themanipulations performed are often referred to in terms, such asproducing, identifying, determining, or comparing.

Any of the operations described herein that form part of one or moreembodiments of the invention are useful machine operations. One or moreembodiments of the invention also relates to a device or an apparatusfor performing these operations. The apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, such as the carrier networkdiscussed above, or it may be a general purpose computer selectivelyactivated or configured by a computer program stored in the computer. Inparticular, various general purpose machines may be used with computerprograms written in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may bemore convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform therequired operations.

The programming modules and software subsystems described herein can beimplemented using programming languages such as Flash, JAVA™, C++, C,C#, Visual Basic, JavaScript, PHP, XML, HTML etc., or a combination ofprogramming languages. Commonly available protocols such as SOAP/HTTPmay be used in implementing interfaces between programming modules. Aswould be known to those skilled in the art the components andfunctionality described above and elsewhere herein may be implemented onany desktop operating system such as different versions of MicrosoftWindows, Apple Mac, Unix/X-Windows, Linux, etc., executing in avirtualized or non-virtualized environment, using any programminglanguage suitable for desktop software development.

The programming modules and ancillary software components, includingconfiguration file or files, along with setup files required forproviding the method and apparatus for troubleshooting subscribers on atelecommunications network and related functionality as described hereinmay be stored on a computer readable medium. Any computer medium such asa flash drive, a CD-ROM disk, an optical disk, a floppy disk, a harddrive, a shared drive, and storage suitable for providing downloads fromconnected computers, could be used for storing the programming modulesand ancillary software components. It would be known to a person skilledin the art that any storage medium could be used for storing thesesoftware components so long as the storage medium can be read by acomputer system.

One or more embodiments of the invention may be practiced with othercomputer system configurations including hand-held devices,microprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumerelectronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers and the like. Theinvention may also be practiced in distributing computing environmentswhere tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linkedthrough a network.

One or more embodiments of the invention can also be embodied ascomputer readable code on a computer readable medium. The computerreadable medium is any data storage device that can store data, whichcan thereafter be read by a computer system. Examples of the computerreadable medium include hard drives, network attached storage (NAS),read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVDs,Flash, magnetic tapes, and other optical and non-optical data storagedevices. The computer readable medium can also be distributed over anetwork coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code isstored and executed in a distributed fashion.

While one or more embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed, it will be appreciated that those skilled in the art uponreading the specification and studying the drawings will realize variousalterations, additions, permutations and equivalents thereof. It istherefore intended that embodiments of the present invention include allsuch alterations, additions, permutations, and equivalents as fallwithin the true spirit and scope of the invention as defined in thefollowing claims. Thus, the scope of the invention should be defined bythe claims, including the full scope of equivalents thereof.

1. A computer implemented method for processing virtualization ofphysical computers that are part of a group into virtual computers,comprising: obtaining relationship data from the physical computers, therelationship data identifies parameters used to communicate within thegroup; analyzing utilization parameters for each of the physicalcomputers of the group; generating a visual model for proposedvirtualization of the group of physical computers, the visual modelidentifying hosting machines designated to define a virtual computer foreach of the physical computers, the visual model providing a graphicalillustration of the group of physical computers once converted tovirtual computers; enabling adjustment of the proposed virtualization ofthe group of physical computers; and generating an execution sequence ofvirtualization operations to be carried out if execution of the proposedvirtualization is triggered, the execution sequence being saved tostorage and accessed upon execution.
 2. A computer implemented methodfor processing virtualization of physical computers that are part of agroup into virtual computers as recited in claim 1, wherein theparameters include credentials for accessing the physical computers. 3.A computer implemented method for processing virtualization of physicalcomputers that are part of a group into virtual computers as recited inclaim 1, wherein the parameters are obtained from a computer requestmade to each or selected ones of the physical computers or from anadministrator of the physical computers.
 4. A computer implementedmethod for processing virtualization of physical computers that are partof a group into virtual computers as recited in claim 3, wherein acomputer request is made through a common information model (CIM)request.
 5. A computer implemented method for processing virtualizationof physical computers that are part of a group into virtual computers asrecited in claim 1, wherein analyzing utilization parameters for each ofthe physical computers of the group generates load information of eachof the physical computers to enable assignment of particular ones of thephysical computers to particular host machines, without exceeding athreshold capacity of the particular host machines.
 6. A computerimplemented method for processing virtualization of physical computersthat are part of a group into virtual computers as recited in claim 1,wherein the visual model illustrates host machines and virtual computersrepresenting the physical computers assigned to the host machines.
 7. Acomputer implemented method for processing virtualization of physicalcomputers that are part of a group into virtual computers as recited inclaim 6, wherein the graphical illustration provides an interactivegraphical user interface (GUI) of each of the virtual computers in theproposed virtualization of the group, the interactive GUI enablingmodification of the proposed virtualization.
 8. A computer implementedmethod for processing virtualization of physical computers that are partof a group into virtual computers as recited in claim 7, wherein theinteractive GUI enabling drag and drop functionality to execute themodification, and if a modification is executed, the proposedvirtualization of the group is updated.
 9. A computer implemented methodfor processing virtualization of physical computers that are part of agroup into virtual computers as recited in claim 8, wherein the proposedvirtualization, if modified, causes a modification of the executionsequence of virtualization operations to be automatically updated.
 10. Acomputer implemented method for processing virtualization of physicalcomputers that are part of a group into virtual computers as recited inclaim 1, wherein the execution sequence is interactively user adjustableto include or exclude tasks or modify the execution sequence resultingfrom the proposed virtualization of the group.
 11. A computerimplemented method for processing virtualization of physical computersthat are part of a group into virtual computers as recited in claim 1,wherein the execution sequence is adjustable to enable custom taskconfiguration to enable zero or near zero interruption in missionprocessing by the group of computers during execution of thevirtualization of the group.
 12. A computer implemented method forprocessing virtualization of physical computers that are part of a groupinto virtual computers as recited in claim 1, wherein the executionsequence is defined by at least one or more scripts or instructions. 13.A computer implemented method for processing virtualization of physicalcomputers that are part of a group into virtual computers as recited inclaim 1, wherein the execution sequence including scripts to completethe execution.
 14. A computer implemented method for processingvirtualization of physical computers that are part of a group intovirtual computers as recited in claim 1, wherein the visual model issaved to storage, the visual model being associated with log informationdefining a parameter state of each of the physical computers before thevirtualization and a parameter state of each of the virtual computersafter the execution of the virtualization in accordance with theexecution sequence.
 15. A computer implemented method for processingvirtualization of physical computers that are part of a group intovirtual computers as recited in claim 1, wherein the enabled adjustmentof the proposed virtualization of the group of physical computersprovides options for manual input of hardware parameters.
 16. A computerimplemented method for processing virtualization of physical computersthat are part of a group into virtual computers as recited in claim 1,wherein the drag and drop enables moving of virtual computers betweenhosting machines to enable user customizable modifications to theproposed virtualization, and the if the customizable modification ismade, the execution sequence is updated to account for the modification.17. A computer implemented method for visualizing a model of avirtualized data center, the data center having a group of physicalcomputers designated for virtualization, comprising: obtainingrelationship data from the physical computers, the relationship datadefining parameters used to enable communication among the group ofphysical computers of the data center; building a visual model fordisplay on a screen, the visual model being for a proposedvirtualization of the group of physical computers of the data center,the visual model identifying hosting machines designated to host avirtual computer for a particular one of the physical computers, thevisual model being graphically interactive to enable modification of theproposed virtualization; and generating an execution sequence ofvirtualization operations to be carried out if execution of the proposedvirtualization is triggered, the execution sequence being saved tomemory and accessed upon execution.
 18. A computer implemented methodfor visualizing a model of a virtualized data center as recited in claim17, further comprising: analyzing utilization parameters for each of thephysical computers of the group, the utilization being obtained fromeither historical workload or anticipated workload, the utilizationparameters providing metrics balanced assignment of virtual computers toparticular ones of the hosting machines.
 19. A computer implementedmethod for visualizing a model of a virtualized data center as recitedin claim 17, wherein the parameters include credentials for accessingthe physical computers.
 20. A computer implemented method forvisualizing a model of a virtualized data center as recited in claim 17,wherein the parameters are obtained from a computer request made to eachor selected ones of the physical computers or from an administrator ofthe physical computers.
 21. A computer implemented method forvisualizing a model of a virtualized data center as recited in claim 20,wherein a computer request is made through a common information model(CIM) operation.
 22. A computer implemented method for visualizing amodel of a virtualized data center as recited in claim 17 wherein agraphical illustration provides an interactive graphical user interface(GUI) of each of the virtual computers in the proposed virtualization ofthe group, the interactive GUI enabling modification of the proposedvirtualization.
 23. A computer implemented method for visualizing amodel of a virtualized data center as recited in claim 22, wherein theinteractive GUI enabling drag and drop functionality to execute themodification, and if a modification is executed, the proposedvirtualization of the group is updated.
 24. A computer implementedmethod for visualizing a model of a virtualized data center as recitedin claim 23, wherein the proposed virtualization, if modified, causes amodification of the execution sequence of virtualization operations tobe automatically updated.
 25. A computer implemented method forvisualizing a model of a virtualized data center as recited in claim 23,wherein the drag and drop enables moving of virtual computers betweenhosting machines to enable user customizable modifications to theproposed virtualization, and the if the customizable modification ismade, the execution sequence is updated to account for the modification.26. Computer readable media having program instructions embodied inphysical storage, the computer readable media, once executed enablesvisualizing a model of a virtualized data center, the data center havinga group of physical computers designated for virtualization comprising:program instructions for obtaining relationship data from the physicalcomputers, the relationship data defining parameters used to enablecommunication among the group of physical computers of the data center;program instructions for building a visual model for display on ascreen, the visual model being for a proposed virtualization of thegroup of physical computers of the data center, the visual modelidentifying hosting machines designated to host a virtual computer for aparticular one of the physical computers, the visual model beinggraphically interactive to enable modification of the proposedvirtualization; and program instructions for generating an executionsequence of virtualization operations to be carried out if execution ofthe proposed virtualization is triggered, the execution sequence beingsaved to memory and accessed upon execution.
 27. The computer readablemedia as recited in claim 26, further comprising: program instructionsfor analyzing utilization parameters for each of the physical computersof the group, the utilization being obtained from either historicalworkload or anticipated workload, the utilization parameters providingmetrics balanced assignment of virtual computers to particular ones ofthe hosting machines.